No word on kidnapped US scribe

New Delhi: While there have been no reports since Tuesday on the fate of abducted US journalist Jill Carroll, who has been missing since January 7, news channel Al-Arabiya aired a video of a kidnapped Jordanian embassy driver on Monday. Mahmoud Saedat was kidnapped in late December from Baghdad.

The father of the US woman journalist abducted in Iraq urged those holding his daughter to set her free.

Jill Carroll was taken captive by militants who threatened to kill her unless the United States releases all Iraqi women prisoners they hold.

"Jill started to tell your story, so please, let her finish it," Jim Carroll said.

"Through the media, if necessary, advise her family and me of how we might initiate a dialogue that will lead to her release."

Carroll's kidnappers, who shot dead her interpreter when they seized her on a Baghdad street on January 7, have threatened to kill her unless US forces released all Iraqi women detainees.

They gave a deadline of last Friday. This passed with no word on the fate of the 28-year-old who works for the Boston-based Christian Science Monitor newspaper.

Representatives from an American Muslim group are in Iraq to persuade kidnappers to free the journalist.

As regards the Jordanian embassy driver, the little known Falcons Brigade that claimed it was holding Saedat has demanded the release of a woman suicide bomber currently held in a Jordanian prison.

Meanwhile, at least two people were killed and six injured in a suicide car bomb attack on a police checkpoint near the Iranian embassy in Baghdad.

Police said the six wounded were three civilians and three policemen. Recently there have been numerous attacks in the Central Baghdad.

Iraqi officials have warned of a possible upsurge in attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents after the results of last month's election, which gave a clear majority to Iraq's Shias.

Meanwhile, the bodies of 36 kidnapping victims who had applied to the Baghdad Police Academy have been found and identified, an official said.

Those bodies and 13 unidentified corpses have been found since Wednesday, killed by gunshots fired at a short distance, according to police.

(With AFP inputs)